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Welcome to our newly designed
website created by our very own Yorick.
There's been a big reshuffle and lots of
new content added so check it all out! |
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Archive for January, 2008
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“More Portal For Sure” – Lombardi
Posted @ 9:00 PM, January 31 2008, By: Evo In Portal
In a recent interview with Eurogamer ( link) Doug Lombardi confirms there will be more Portal, but he isn't what it will be like. "There'll be more Portal, for sure. But the details of that, to be honest, we're still working out," he said. Doug also informs us that new information regarding Gordon's adventures are months away. Check out the interview here.
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Doug Lombardi on Steamworks
Posted @ 8:49 AM, January 31 2008, By: DigiQ8 In Steam
RPS had an interview with Doug Lombardi about Valve's recent announcement Steamworks.
RPS: Unified PC gaming through Steam?
Lombardi: “Unified” is a word that all kinds of groups and consortiums push about, but the thing is just that we have a system that we’ve tried and we’re using for thirteen million people. It makes sense for developers to just have access to this stuff that is essential, but no great design challenge – the copy protection, the server browser – and the motivation for us is that if a game uses our encryption and sells millions of copies, all those people who didn’t already have a Steam account have to make one. Once they’re there we can talk to them and turn them on to all the other games on Steam.
You can read the interview here.
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Mod of the Year Awards 2007
Posted @ 4:36 PM, January 29 2008, By: Evo In Mods
The ModDB Mod of the Year Awards 2007 have been completed and the winners have been announced! In the 'Best Mods of 2007: Unreleased' category there were three Half-Life 2 based games. Operation Black Mesa is a mod that will take players through the Black Mesa Research Facility in the boots of Corporal Adrian Shepard reliving the events of Opposing Force with new areas and enemies. It reached number 5. Barney's Tales in at number 3 takes a more realistic approach to Blue Shift also promising to include vehicles and more. The top game in the Unreleased category (a mod now released) is Zombie Panic which provides an ultimate Zombie-fest! Note: Black Mesa (the mod of the original Half-Life) wasn't included in the awards having won it last year. In the 'Best Mods of 2007: Released' category we one again had three Half-Life 2 based mods featured. The excellent Minerva landed at the number 5 spot, Adam Foster's mod providing an excellent detailed single-player experience. Empires came in at number 3 brilliantly crafting the RTS and FPS genres together into one mod. Finally Insurgency got the top spot providing one of the best multiplayer experiences you can find in the gaming world. Check out all the results here.
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Valve Unveils Steamworks
Posted @ 1:38 PM, January 29 2008, By: Hectic Glenn In News
Steamworks is a complete suite of publishing and development tools - ranging from copy protection to social networking services to server browsing - it is now available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide. The services included in Steamworks may be used a la carte or in any combination. So what will we be expecting to see? - Real-time stats on sales, gameplay, and product activation: Know exactly how well your title is selling before the charts are released. Find out how much of your game is being played. Login into your Steamworks account pages and view up to the hour information regarding worldwide product activations and player data.
- State of the art encryption system: Stop paying to have your game pirated before it's released. Steamworks takes anti-piracy to a new level with strong encryption that keeps your game locked until the moment it is released
- Territory/version control: The key-based authentication provided in Steamworks also provides territory/version controls to help curb gray market importing and deliver territory-specific content to any given country or region.
- Auto updating: Insures all customers are playing the latest and greatest version of your games.
- Voice chat: Available for use both in and out of game.
- Multiplayer matchmaking: Steamworks offers you all the multiplayer backend and matchmaking services that have been created to support Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, the most played action games in the world.
- Social networking services: With support for achievements, leaderboards, and avatars, Steamworks allows you to give your gamers as many rewards as you would like, plus support for tracking the world's best professional and amateur players of your game.
- Development tools: Steamworks allows you to administer private betas which can be updated multiple times each day. Also includes data collection tools for QA, play testing, and usability studies.
Lord Gabe said on the matter...
Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market, Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing.
For more information see this interview with Jason Holtman Valve's Director of Business Development - Interview
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New Team Fortress 2 Update (CTF_Well is Here)
Posted @ 12:23 AM, January 26 2008, By: DigiQ8 In Team Fortress 2
The latest Team Fortress 2 update has been released, including the new CTF map Well.
- Added new capture the flag map CTF_Well
- Added Spanish map descriptions
- Added new option to auto-save a scoreboard screenshot at the end of a map to the Multiplayer->Advanced dialog
- Added more particle optimizations for mid range and low end hardware
- Updated CP_GravelPit to fix all known exploits and changed the scoring method to score per capture rather than per round
- Fixed a couple cases where player stats were not being recorded correctly
For the full changelist click here.
CTF_Well :
Restart Steam to get the new update.
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New Source SDK Update is Now Underway as a Public Beta
Posted @ 5:01 AM, January 25 2008, By: DigiQ8 In Editing
You can now get participate in the new Source SDK Update public Beta, modders can now create single player and multi-player mods based in the HL2:Episode Two source code. Also it adds the ability that allows users to add custom scenes to Orange Box games.
To run this beta version you will need to add -beta srcsdk0122 to your command line when you start Steam. This can be done by opening up the Windows shortcut you use to launch Steam and adding -beta srcsdk0122 right after Steam.exe. For more info click here.
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Jailbreak: Source Update
Posted @ 4:33 PM, January 24 2008, By: Evo In Mods
The guys behind the Jailbreak: Source mod have just got in touch with us with some lovely news and new screens... The countdown to the release of Jailbreak 0.4 continues today with six new in game shots of Iridium, once again from our Wednesday night beta test. You can also see three more of our new weapons; the Combine Pistol, the Railgun (!) and the Non-Propelling Matter Transport Device (!?).
This week we're also revealing one of the new core features: Point Scoring! Aswell as frags for kills, players now recieve points based on their actions during the round. If you're a natural defender, you'll recieve bonus points for fragging enemies near the release button. If you're a talented escape artist, then you'll get points for breaking out! Likewise, releasing your team mates earns you two points per team member released!
The team can also recieve round bonuses for impressive feats, such as the whole of your team avoiding jail for the entire round. There's many, many more ways to gain points, meaning that it doesn't matter if you're no good at shooting straight, just play as the role you're most comfortable within your team and earn points for doing so! Next week, you'll find out what you can spend these points on... Some of the new media follows, just click on the thumbnail for the full version.
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Skies are Clear on STEAM
Posted @ 1:57 PM, January 24 2008, By: Mikael Grizzly In News, Steam Games
The prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, will be released on Steam, the only digital dowload distribution platform to carry the game, simultaneously with traditional retail channels. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky brings the players one year prior to the events of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game in 2011. A group of stalkers has, for the first time, reached the very heart of the Zone-Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant-and brings about a cataclysm on the brink of a catastrophe. Through a rich narrative and gripping combat action, players uncover new challenges and insights in the Exclusion Zone. A new version of the game engine, X-Ray 1.5, powers superior graphical details and realistic and non-scripted combat AI.
Steam has introduced S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to many thousands of new fans all over the world. We chose to deliver the digital version of the game exclusively on Steam because of its proven success not only as the leading global digital distribution platform for games, but because it allows us to directly reach its integrated and active community of gamers.
Said GSC Game World's CEO Sergiy Grygorovych.
More information about the game is available on Clear Sky's Steam page.
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The Scout to Star in the Next “Meet The…” Video
Posted @ 2:33 PM, January 23 2008, By: DigiQ8 In Team Fortress 2
You've met The Heavy, The Solider and The Demoman, now get ready to meet the super fast Scout. Our Lead Editor Hectic Glenn got a confirmation from Doug Lombardi that " Meet The Scout" is the next piece of the famous "Meet The.." series.
Hectic Glenn : Any update on the next expected "Meet the..."? The bets are on the pyro currently...although we wouldn't be able to hear a word of what he/she says.
Doug Lombardi : Scout is next.
A man of few words indeed, but confirmation regardless.
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Team Fortress 2 Gets Unlocked!
Posted @ 8:37 AM, January 23 2008, By: Evo In Team Fortress 2
A couple of weeks ago we heard rumours that Valve we planning to introduce some major changes into Team Fortress 2. Tom Francis from PC Gamer UK is currently visiting Valve and has revealed the big change and a new game mode to go along side it. The big change to the gameplay of TF2 is the addition of unlocks, at first they will only be limited to the Medic class and will be unlocked by completing a certain amount of the new achievements for the Medic. The new game mode requires you to escort a mine cart accross a map to the opponents base. Here is some of what Tom said. Starting with just two new items for the Medic, Valve are going to be gradually rolling out new, unlockable weapons for every class. These will be alternative versions of their current loadouts that, once unlocked by earning a certain number of achievements, you can pick and choose from on a new 'Loadout' menu.
The new game mode is showcased in Goldrush - the map that will ship alongside cp_badlands in a little over a month from now. One team must escort a small mining cart through a series of Dustbowl-like map segments. The cart moves faster the more Blue players are near it, but stops entirely if even one Red player is in range. Blue have to escort the cart all the way to Red's headquarters within a certain timelimit. Read the rest of this news here.
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Portal Leads GDC Awards
Posted @ 5:45 PM, January 22 2008, By: Evo In Portal, Steam Games, Team Fortress 2
Portal lead the Game Developer Choice Award nominations with five nominations! Portal has been nominated for the following awards: Best Game Design; Best Technology; Best Writing; Innovation and most importantly Game of the Year. Team Fortress 2 is nominated in the Best Visual Art award. To be recognized in the Game Industry’s Only Open Peer-Based Awards is a just achievement for these two games, and here is to hoping they pick up the awards! Other Steam games in the awards include Bioshock, Call of Duty 4 and Peggle. Linky.
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Companion Cube – The Case
Posted @ 4:09 PM, January 22 2008, By: Mikael Grizzly In News, Portal
The Companion Cube is a well known celebrity. But what is better than a Companion Cube? No, not two cubes, rather a real, life-like Companion Cube that stores and protects your precious PC hardware. Such a case mod was created by Magnus Perrson who has published the results of his hard work on bit-tech.net, be sure to check them out!
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EVE Online – Steam’ed
Posted @ 4:04 PM, January 22 2008, By: Evo In Steam Games
EVE Online, the space based MMO from CCP has been transported onto Steam and a 21-day free trial is now available. The game is also coming with a $5 discount for the first full month of play. EVE Online, the award winning massively multiplayer online (MMO) game from CCP, is coming to Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content with over 13 million accounts worldwide.
To celebrate the launch of Steam's first massively multiplayer online game offering, a special 21-day trial period for EVE will be available, free of charge, to all Steam gamers. Steam gamers will also save $5 off their first full month of EVE Online.
EVE Online is a leader in online gaming technology, hosting hundreds of thousands of players in the same persistent universe. The latest of the EVE Online expansions, which are always free for players, introduces a graphic update of gargantuan proportions and a host of new gameplay features. Every ship, station, and stargate is rendered in an amazing splendor of spacefaring sights. Learn more here.
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